Operation Red Nose gears up for hectic holidays

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This article was published 17/11/2022 (672 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Operation Red Nose is hitting the road for the first time since the pandemic shut down holiday parties — and it’s gearing up for a busy season.

The Winnipeg chapter of the Canada-wide driving service, in which teams of volunteers drive partygoers home in their own cars, hasn’t oeprated since 2019.

This year, they’re preparing for people to break out the Champagne and hit the party circuit. Organizers hope they can recruit enough volunteers to meet demand.

“I hate to say it, but we’re just keeping fingers crossed, and we’re making it up as we go,” Red Nose co-ordinator Sharra Hinton joked at a kick-off event in the Safety Services Manitoba building Friday.

The program will run on Fridays and Saturdays from Nov. 25 until New Year’s Eve.

Drivers who find themselves unable to get home will be able to call the Red Nose phone number or use its mobile app to schedule a pickup from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Two volunteers drive with the impaired person, and one follows and picks up the volunteers afterward.

Ideally, Hinton said, they would have 500 volunteers to fill the 650 spots needed based on prior demand, but she’s processed just 152 applications this year.

When there are fewer drivers, wait times go up.

“We don’t want to push that wait time out too much for clients because they start getting antsy. (They say), ‘I want to go home now,’ and then they start not making great decisions,” she said. “That’s what we’re really trying to avoid.”

People who use the service are not charged a fee, but they are asked to make a donation, which are given to youth programs across the province.

Operation Red Nose operates in Brandon, Flin Flon, Portage la Prairie, La Broquerie and Steinbach, Saint-Malo, Shilo, The Pas and Thompson.

In Winnipeg, donations go to the Manta Swim Club to purchase new equipment and subsidize programs.

The swim club received $35,000 of the $90,000 that was raised in Manitoba in 2019.

Manta Swim Club president Steve Lang said there is concern about the level of donations this year.

“I think it might be hard to get to that number again, but people are going to be out in full force, enjoying their weekends and enjoying their time and trying to get back to normality,” he said. “So maybe that number will be surpassed by quite a bit. We have no idea until we actually get out there.”

Lang said he fondly remembers passengers digging in their pockets to hand over change at the end of their drives — but donations can also be given online.

“We’re going to really try to advertise the heck out of it, because of not only the volunteer levels, but the client levels… Inflation’s a thing, and people might not have the same amount of money in their pocket to give away,” Lang said.

On average, 4,000 people get rides by Operation Red Nose in Manitoba yearly.

The Winnipeg Police Service and RCMP provide free background checks of volunteers.

RCMP Sgt. Cathy Farrell said drivers can expect more checkstops throughout the Christmas season. She reminded drivers that mandatory alcohol screening laws are in effect. It means officers can screen any driver who is lawfully pulled over for impairment, be it through a checkstop or otherwise.

“Just yesterday I had to deal with notifying a family that they lost a loved one on the Perimeter Highway… Make your family, friends, your communities safe by choosing a safe ride,” she said.

Interested volunteers can apply at rednosewpg.ca, and the number to call for a ride home is 204-957-NOSE (6673).

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca